Average Joe for President

“Average Joe”? Schriner is running for President. Of the United States. Again. This will be his 3rd presidential campaign, and he is following a similar strategy to the previous two. That is, packing up his wife and three kids and hitting the road in his old van, crisscrossing across America. He came through the Four Corners area this week.

Joe is a Midwestern guy, from Cleveland. So, it is no surprise that his platform is based on getting back to simpler times. In fact, Joe wants to take America all the way back to Colonialism. His grassroots philosophy sees village councils having more power than the federal government, sees us living and working within a 15-mile radius of a town. He wants to restore a sense of community in the American people. He wants to place family first, and feels that this is the first step in fixing a long list of problems, particularly crime.

A Catholic, he is also against abortion, stem cell research, and homosexuality. He wants the space program axed. Cut back on military spending. Create a “U.S. Department of Peace”?.

As an environmentalist, he has many ideas for cutting back on greenhouse gases. In fact he and his family have campaigned on their bikes, logging thousands of miles. They bring along their children, now aged nine, seven and two on every trip, and home school them.

Joe seems to spend a lot of time listening to the people that he meets along the way, and writing down what he hears. He incorporates a lot of this into his campaign. He keeps a blog and a “where’s Joe?”? section on his website. He has written a book as a way of communicating his ideas and what he has learned along the road.

Is Joe a refreshing change — an advocate for social justice that is on to something here? I think that depends on how well you resonate with his platform. As for myself and others who now live in the West, the romantic notion of a simpler life certainly has its appeal, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.